And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes.
software
Realflight G4 Custom Map – Symi Circle
Jul 12th
Ever wanted to practice where I fly? If you have Realflight G3 or above, here is your chance!
This is my first Photofield, everything you see you should be able to collide with… let me know if you find any bugs or areas that need adjustments!
Download Symi Circle G4 Photofield – SymiCir_PI.RFX
And check out the original Panorama (all yoinked from Google Streetview!)
Bonzi Buddy – the Revival!
Jul 11th
You thought it was the last time you’d ever see your favorite purple ape in 2005 after Bonzi.com was shut down for installing malicious spyware code in their program?
Think again! Your favorite Internet surfing companion can be brought back to life! And I will show you how, through your own Dr. Frankenstein experiment.
But why Trag, why would you want to bring back such a godawful and annoying Barney-esque monster from the past? It’s simple see, once my army of Bonzi’s are ready and I obtain enough bananas to power our… well let’s just say I have my reasons.
First thing is first, this is not the original BonziBuddy program – I have searched and searched and I am unable to find an installer on the web. I would love to try it in a Win98 sandbox environment. However…
What we will be doing is installing the Microsoft Agent components for Windows (deprecated now, but for many of us it was our first experience with text-to-speech), loading the Bonzi Buddy model, and then giving you full control over and the ability to program his every action!
Instructions to make your Bonzi-Frankenstein Beast:
1. Download/Install MSAgent Core files.
2. Download/Install the Lernout & Hauspie TruVoice TTS Engine
3. Download the Bonzi model and move it to your MSAgent chars folder.
Typically this is found in “C:\Windows\msagent\chars“
4. Download/Install Microsoft Agent Scripting Helper (MASH)
Optional files: You may need these files depending on your OS/configuration:
1. Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine
2. Microsoft Speech Control Panel Icon
Making Bonzi do stuff!
Open MASH to start the fun.
Close the Tip of the Day and select Bonzi from the Character drop down.
From here you can use MASH to make him speak, animate and move position. All of your actions will be automatically recorded in the “Script” pane below (you can disable this by unchecking “Auto-Add Actions to Script”). Clicking “Show and Tell” will go through all of the animations programmed for Bonzi.
Does Bonzi not sound quite like you remember? Select “TTS Voice” from the menu on the left and scroll through and try to find a more suitable voice. Still not right? Choose “Adv Speak” from the menu to the left, and try adjusting the pitch/speed. With enough adjustment you might be able to find the secret dark secret frequencies which enables Bonzi’s capability to…. I’m getting carried away again. Just try downloading more voices from below!
Enjoy your blast from the past, without spyware!
You can get more characters here:
Microsoft Agent Ring Characters
You can get more voices here:
Microsoft Agent Ring Setup Page (scroll down to step 2)
Resources and other helpful websites regarding MSAgent and BonziBuddy:
Microsoft Agent Ring
MASH Developer Website
Scumm VM – Play your old Lucasarts Classic Games!
Dec 10th
Have some old classic Lucasarts titles sitting around that won’t play on your fancy Windows Vista machine (or even *gasp* Windows 7?!) Well you can Download ScummVM and run them just like you were still running a 486!
If you seem to have misplaced your game disks, there are a few people around the internet who have titles available online such as The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2, LeChuck’s Revenge, and even Loom! You can find all your favorite classics online if you look hard enough, just make sure to virus scan, and know it’s illegal to download them without paying if you do not own the original. lol wut
Steam offers the Original Monkey Island download bundled with their new Special Edition version, which is quite nice. They sell it for $20 and I believe it’s worth every penny, being able to re-play one of my favorite classic games with a fresh feel.
Telltale Games even just released the final of 5 chapters of “Tales of Monkey Island,” the fifth installment into the game series, which Ron Gilbert (creator of Monkey Island and other Lucasarts Classics) himself even worked on! He has not worked on a Monkey Island game since LeChuck’s Revenge in 1992.
Assassins Creed 2 Hidden Messages
Nov 26th
While making your way through the story line of the amazingly awesome fall hit, Assassins Creed II, you may stumble upon Glyphs hidden throughout the world.
As you find them, they will unlock 1 frame of a 20 part sequence from the start menu called “The Truth”. Each frame has a little under a second of animation before it cuts out (you have to scan all of the glyphs to get the whole sequence, check the link above).
To unlock the short frames of animation, you need to solve some riddles from puzzles contained within, I can’t remember if this was the 4th or 5th frame where this occured.
Anyhow, while solving the 2nd part of this puzzle, I came across some Hexadecimal code on my scanner, and I decided to plug it into the internet… Here is the result:
| Hex Code |
41:6e:74:69:6b:79:74:68:65:72:61:20:4d:65:63:68: 61:6e:69:73:6d:2c:20:6d:75:63:68:20:6f:6c:64:65: 72:20:74:68:61:6e:20:31:35:30:20:42:2e:43:2e:45:2e |
| ASCII Translation |
Antikythera Mechanism’ much older than 150 B.C.E. |
If you don’t know what the Antikythera Mechanism is, you can read more about it here.
The next slide presented me with some Decimal Code:
| Decimal Code |
65 110 99 105 101 110 116 32 99 105 116 121 44 32 82 97 106 97 115 116 104 97 110 44 32 73 110 100 105 97 44 32 105 114 114 97 100 105 97 116 101 100 32 98 121 32 80 111 69 |
| ASCII Translation |
Ancient city, Rajasthan, India, irradiated by PoE |
I’m not sure about the history of Rajasthan, but PoE is an item in the game, a Piece of Eden.
Finally I came to the last page, and my this point I was wishing I paid more attention on the first slide to catch the possible codes it contained… This last one was in Binary:
| Binary Code |
01010011011101010110110101100101 01110010011010010110000101101110 00101110001000000100110101100101 00100000001100100011001100101110 |
| ASCII Translation |
Sumerian. Me 23. |
And I have no idea what that may be alluding to! But wow it was fun punching all of that in and converting it, I know, I am hardcore nerd.
If you have any information on the possible code contained in the first slide, please leave a reply! I hope you enjoyed reading about this very small part of a very huge and VERY awesome game!
Vine Server – VNC Server for Mac OS X
Nov 23rd
Vine Server(OSXvnc) is a robust, full-featured VNC server for MacOS X. It allows VNC clients to remotely view or control the machine. It is provided by TestPlant, for use with Vine Viewer AND Eggplant for cross-platform testing,
Chicken of the VNC – Remote Desktop Client for Mac OS X
Nov 23rd
Chicken of the VNC is a VNC client for Mac OS X. A VNC client allows one to display and interact with a remote computer screen. In other words, you can use Chicken of the VNC to interact with a remote computer as though it’s right next to you.
Filezilla – Multiplatform FTP Client/Server
Nov 23rd
FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface.
Burnaware – Free CD and DVD Burning Software for Windows
Nov 21st
BurnAware Free is a free CD, DVD, Blu-ray Disc burning software. It is ideal for users with basic disc burning needs as backup, creating data, audio, MP3 music, DVD-Video discs and burning disc images. Free, easy to set up, it enables you to save your files to disc quickly and provides clean, flexible interface to help you complete your burning tasks much faster.
Beaufort, NC
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